SCK•CEN » News » Anomaly in shielded cell for handling radio-isotopes: no impact on employees, population or environment

Anomaly in shielded cell for handling radio-isotopes: no impact on employees, population or environment

2019-05-16

Yesterday afternoon, radioactivity was released through a ventilation chimney while handling a selenium-75 capsule in a shielded cell. Selenium-75 is a radio-isotope used for industrial applications.

Based on the first analyses, the dose following the release during the event amounts to 0.1 micro Sievert. This amount corresponds with 1/10,000th of the natural, annual exposure. All safety procedures were followed and enabled us to control the anomaly. This event has no impact on the wellbeing of our staff, the population or the environment.

After a thorough analyses, this event has been classified as an incident of level 1 on the INES scale. INES (International Nuclear Event Scale) is a communication tool that enables to describe the severity of an incident involving ionising radiation in an easily understandable way. This scale has seven levels, ranging from 1 (anomaly) to 7 (serious accident).